News from Seattle's Office of Economic Development

Are you in the manufacturing, transportation, clean tech, or maritime industry? Need help incorporating sustainable practices into your business plan?

This workshop will help evaluate, design, and implement sustainable practices within your business operations. We’ll hear from experts and industry leaders on how to create, update or revamp your business plan to stay competitive and proactive.

Date: September 20, 2011 (Tuesday)

Time: 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Cost: Free! Snacks and refreshments included

RSVP: Attendance is limited; please visit the business page at www.ecoss.org to register or click here.

Whether it’s on the street or in a garage, parking is something that many people do on a regular basis. While people certainly don’t drive for the sole purpose of parking, the act of finding a spot is inevitable. SDOT wants to hear about your experiences.

SDOT manages the on-street parking network – all those pay stations, meters, and related signs. Right now, they’re working on a project that outlines different strategies to make paid parking in downtown and neighborhood business districts more available. The technical term is performance-based parking pricing. Other cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C. are testing out new strategies too.

The survey results will help SDOT get a better sense of business owner needs, understand the customer parking experience and look to improve the parking experience in Seattle.

Spring has arrived and Seattleites are gearing up to take part in the city’s longest-running neighborhood cleanup program – Spring Clean.

Spring Clean, now in its 25th year, runs from April through May. Last year saw more than 20,000 volunteer hours dedicated to making Seattle a more livable city.

Spring Clean activities include painting out graffiti, picking up litter and illegally dumped materials, stenciling storm drains, cleaning school yards, removing invasive plants in planting strips and traffic circles, and planting trees. All projects are conducted on public property.

The City of Seattle supports volunteers with free bags, gloves, safety vests, and waste disposal. Spring Clean information, including neighborhood cleanup activities and sign-up packets, is available by calling 206-233-7187 or by visiting www.seattle.gov/util/springclean.

Spring Clean is a partnership between Seattle residents and Seattle Public Utilities, Parks and Recreation, the Department of Neighborhoods, and the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Catch enterpriseSeattle’s 39th Annual Economic Forecast Conference online enterpriseSeattle
Last week, enterpriseSeattle held their 39th Annual Economic Forecast Conference that included a panel of top economists from the nation and the region as well as global health leaders. If you missed the event, but are still interested in the details, enterpriseSeattle has posted the entire webcast and PowerPoint slides online.

Arts economic impact was $1.9 billion Seattle Times
Arts grant maker ArtsFund published its latest report detailing the economic impact of arts and cultural institutions in the central Puget Sound area. The report shows that arts and cultural organizations contributed $1.9 billion to the local economy in 2009.

How to green Washington’s transportation system Crosscut
Not only is transportation the largest and fastest growing source of greenhouse gas in Washington state, it is also a major source of water pollution. What are some strategies to create “Transit-oriented communities” that will maximize social and environmental benefits?

As a service to the Seattle business community, the Office of Economic Development curates a daily business news blast, Daily Digest. As a feature on Bottom Line, we’re posting a handful of stories from the Daily Digest every day. Find the stories informative or helpful? Keep checking Bottom Line or sign up for Daily Digest to receive the full version in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Daily Digesthere.

(OED Acting Director Steve Johnson stands in the back row, fourth from the left, during a recent tour of the Boeing 787 line with a group of Seattle community leaders.)

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted Boeing expanded type inspection authorization (TIA) Tuesday, clearing the way for its personnel to fully participate in future test flights and for the collection of required flight-test data. Initial TIA was granted Feb. 11, which supported the collection of flutter certification data.

The expanded TIA marks the FAA’s confirmation that the airplane and team are ready to collect additional certification data. Boeing achieved the expansion by demonstrating the readiness of the airplane throughout a variety of speeds, altitudes and configurations.

“This TIA expansion is another significant step toward delivering airplanes to our customers. We remain on track to deliver the first airplane to ANA (All Nippon Airways) this year,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program, Commercial Airplanes.

Seattle prides itself on its earth-friendliness, from its high recycling rate and abundance of clean technology companies to its forward-looking Climate Protection Initiative. Soon, one Seattle company may be putting the city on the map in yet another green arena: clean transportation through vegetable-based biodiesel.

Yale Wong’s General Biodiesel, Inc., a Seattle-based renewable energy startup, collects scraps and used vegetable oil from restaurants across Washington state and renders the oil to create clean-burning biofuel. In a recent feature in the Northwest Asian Weekly, Wong calls his biofuel business “double green,” noting that the company takes what would otherwise be poured down drains or dumped into landfills and converts it into a clean, green final product.

Seattle’s Fleets and Facilities Department and the Department of Parks and Recreation are currently looking into the possibility of using vegetable-based biodiesel like Wong’s to power the city’s fleet of vehicles.

At the beginning of 2009, the City of Seattle set a goal of reducing fuel consumption in its fleets by 3 percent from 2008 levels. In just the first half of 2009, the City has already reduced its overall fuel consumption by 2.7 percent, or 32,777 gallons, compared to the same period last year.

The fuel reductions made by all departments have saved the City more than $75,000, as well as:

– Eliminated 476 tons of carbon dioxide emissions
– Eliminated the need to import more than 900 barrels of oil
– Eliminated the equivalent annual emissions from 80 passenger vehicles
– Eliminated the equivalent annual emissions from the use of electricity in 60 homes

This fuel reduction effort is one aspect of the City’s Green Fleet Action Plan, which sets targets for adding green vehicles to the City’s fleet as well as reducing the amount of petroleum fuel used by City vehicles.

The goals of the Green Fleet Action Plan coincide with those of the City’s broad-reaching Climate Protection Initiative, which ensures that Seattle reduces greenhouse gas emissions, encourages compact communities, promotes clean energy and conservation, and inspires others to take environmental action.

Thanks to a $99.8 million grant—part of a $2.4 billion grant program announced yesterday by President Obama and the U.S. Department of Energy—Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec) will establish 2,550 charging systems for electric vehicles in the Seattle area and four other metropolitan areas around the country. The charging stations represent the largest electrification project in the history of transportation.

“This news heralds the end of the filling station and the beginning of the era of the charging station,” said Mayor Greg Nickels. “We are going to be leaders in converting our transportation from oil to electricity. We started with the Seattle streetcar and made giant strides last month with the opening of light rail. And now we’ll make it simple to drive a car powered by clean City Light electricity.”

Setting the stage for today’s announcement, Nickels and Nissan North America signed an agreement last April to make Seattle one of the first markets to introduce the Nissan LEAF – a zero-emission, all-electric car. In return, Seattle pledged to take regulatory and other steps to get ready for the arrival of Nissan’s electric car in October 2010.

Electric automobiles in Seattle will be powered by electricity from Seattle City Light, the first large utility in the United States to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions. At current residential electricity rates, the Nissan LEAF would cost approximately $190 to drive 10,000 miles, or just under 2 cents a mile. To drive the same distance in a car that gets 25 miles per gallon – the 2008 national MPG average – would cost approximately $1,100 at $2.76 per gallon, the current average cost of gasoline in Seattle.

For answers to frequently asked questions about plug-in vehicles, click here. To view a timeline of Seattle’s journey to electric transportation, click here.